The anticipation for the sequel to what many consider a top-ranked game persists, but recent leaks from a Valve insider paint a grim picture for Half-Life 3’s development. According to the insider, the game was canceled internally in 2015, when only ten employees were working on it.

Half-Life 3 was slated to feature a dream sequence where Gordon Freeman relives parts of the “Seven Hour War,” the event that preceded Half-Life 2 and led to the Alien Combine’s takeover of Earth. The game would then transition to the Aperature Science lab, where the Portal games take place.

Players would have control of a robot arm to solve puzzles and could expect a pseudo-open-world game with non-linear missions, which were procedurally generated. After escaping Aperature, Gordon would find that 20 years have passed and he is in the ruins of a North American city.

Tyler McVicker, a reputable Valve informant, confirms much of this information, adding that internal conflicts at Valve caused the project’s cancellation as the company shifted its focus to virtual reality.

This news is of course heartbreaking, but as always no official statement is likely to come from Valve.